Celebrants

Nickel Creek

Released on 24/03/2023 by Repair Records
Main artists: Nickel Creek
Genre: Country

Available in

24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

In our short-attention-span era, Nickel Creek have managed to create a collection of 18 songs that locks in your engagement for every note. Even more impressive, it comes after a nine-year recording break yet finds the trio—who call their sound "progressive acoustic," incorporating their first-love bluegrass but also Americana, jazz, classical, pop and country—as close in step as ever. Of course, this is a band that has always been all about harmony; which makes their seventh album's theme more intriguing: "This is a record about embracing the friction inherent in real human connection. We begin the record yearning for and pursuing harmonious connection. We end the record having realized that truly harmonious connection can only be achieved through the dissonance that we've spent our entire adult lives trying to avoid." The song "Strangers" explores the dangers of revisiting old friendship that might be happier left to memory: "It's been too long, stranger/ I guess the well's run dry/ And we've been missing/ Absolutely nothing," guitarist Sean Watkins sings, as his sister Sara Watkins and Chris Thile back him up like a Greek chorus. Instant classic "Stone's Throw" treads similar ground, via a middle of the night fog that blurs past and present while the music alternates between stridency and lullaby gentless—until the two meet at the end, frantic mandolin and guitar melding with Sara's bittersweet violin. Domestic strife plays out on the excellent "Thinnest Wall," with Sara swaggering like Fiona Apple as featherweight strings illustrate the struggle to find light when a relationship gets shady. "Just what are we fighting for, baby?" she sings. "You and I decided to be family." "Holding Pattern" casts the three as late '90s alt balladeers, complete with hushed vocals and R&B finger snaps. (The lyrics, meanwhile, will ring true to everyone who endured pandemic lockdown: "Washing my hands/ Through the night can't/ Sleep for the sirens/ Screaming one man's freedom's/ Another's fever/ That keeps rising.") "Goddamned Saint" also has an alternative '90s vibe with syncopated strings that melt into an easier rhythm, like slipping into a warm bath, before reaching for the heavens—as dramatic as "Bittersweet Symphony." "Hollywood Ending" plays with '70s singer-songwriter country, while "From the Beach" is a slow-burn, mountain-music torch song. And the terrific "Where the Long Line Leads" stands out as a country-blues barn-burner that lets Sara unleash her juke-joint diva side: "And instead of my list/ You'll be onto my kiss!" She's breathless by the end, but still manages to whip out a "whoo hoo hoo!" © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

More info

Celebrants

Nickel Creek

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From €13,50/month

Celebrants